Survey of effect of reading and texting the short message on performance and mental workload of young drivers

Background and Aims: Absent-mindedness of drivers is one of the important cause of traffic crashes. Nowadays using of mobile phones during driving have been spread increasingly and this can disturb the attention of drivers and affect the driving performances. This study aimed to determine the effect of reading and texting of message on driving performance and mental workload of young drivers. Methods: 40 young drivers (20 males & 20 females) with the average age of 25 years were studied in a driving simulator. The scenario was driving in middle line of a three-lined highway and responsions to visual stimulus of a Peripheral Detection Task. Drivers were obligated to drive in this highway with two conditions, one in usual condition and one in condition that they were busy with receiving, reading and texting the short messages. The lateral deviation of vehicle and PDT reaction time were used to record the driving performances. And the Integrated Workload Scale was used at the end of each trial for measuring of mental workload. Results: The average amount of lateral deviation of vehicle. Reaction time and IWS were 26.68 cm, 502.13 ms and 2.02 respectively in usual driving trial, And were 53.04 cm, 652.12 ms and 6 respectively in driving trial with reading and texting the messages. The difference amounts of lateral deviation of vehicle, reaction time and IWS variables were statistically significant (P-value=0.000) based on paired-samples t test and Wilcoxon test in usual and with reading-texting driving trials. Moreover no statistically significant differences were seen in amounts of lateral deviation, reaction time and IWS between males and females. Conclusion: This study showed that the reading and texting the short message during driving can cause both significant decrease of driving performances and increase of mental workload. Accordingly more attention to consequences of using mobile phone during driving is necessary.